agent
Pluralagents
- 1A person authorized to act for another, called the principal, handling business or decisions on that person's behalf.
While she was working overseas, her agent signed the lease and paid the deposit on her behalf.
Shareholders appointed agents to vote on their behalf at the meeting.
UsageSomeone acts as an agent for another person: “She acted as an agent for the buyer.”
Similarrepresentative, proxy, delegate, deputy
Oppositeprincipal
Note
One half of a legal pair: the agent acts, and the principal, by whose authority the agent acts, is bound by what is done. Melville's Ahab in Moby-Dick (1851) vows to hate the white whale whether it is "agent" or "principal." Real estate keeps the pairing busy today, with a buyer's agent negotiating against the seller's agent, each speaking for one side.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- An authorized agent acts for a principal and can bind that principal. en.wikipedia.org
- Herman Melville wrote Moby-Dick, first published in 1851. en.wikisource.org
- The first-edition title page dates Moby-Dick to 1851. en.wikisource.org
- Ahab vows to direct his hatred against the white whale whether it is agent or principal; both quoted words are exact. en.wikisource.org
- Buyer's and seller's agents represent their respective sides in real estate negotiations. nysenate.gov
- 2A force, cause, or substance (chemical, biological, thermal, or otherwise) that has the power to produce an effect.
Researchers tested the new antiviral agent on infected cells.
Certain chemical agents break down stains far faster than soap.
UsageUsually with a describing word: a cleaning agent, a chemical agent, an antiviral agent.
Note
The impersonal side of the Latin participle agēns, "doing" or "driving": here what acts is not a person but a force or substance. In 1807 James Edward Smith quotes Thomas Thomson on how far chemistry alone can account for what happens in a sprouting seed.
- 3A person who works for an intelligence agency, either as an officer of it or as someone recruited to help its efforts.
The agent operated under deep cover in the capital for three years.
Several agents were exposed when the network was betrayed.
UsageOften in secret agent, foreign agent or double agent.
- 4A person who looks for work for another and negotiates the terms of the deal between the worker and the employer.
A literary agent secured a publishing deal for the first-time novelist.
Talent agents take a percentage of whatever their clients earn.
UsageUsually named by the field: a literary agent, a talent agent, a sports agent.
Similarrepresentative
- 5A respectful form of address for a law enforcement officer, especially a federal one rather than a member of the police.
Agent Reyes, the warrant has just been signed.
Right this way, Agent. The witness is waiting inside.
UsageUsed before a surname, Agent Reyes, or alone when you speak to the officer: right this way, Agent.
Note
An American title that works like Officer or Doctor. It is capitalized and placed before a surname, as in "Agent Sanchez!" in Grand Theft Auto V (2013), or it can stand alone in direct address. It usually signals a law enforcement agent outside the police, so using it to greet a city patrol officer would sound out of place.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- The address "Agent Sanchez!" occurs in Grand Theft Auto V, spoken by Steve Haines. en.wiktionary.org
- Grand Theft Auto V was first released in 2013. ir.take2games.com
- 6In computing, a program or component that performs tasks or exchanges information on behalf of a user, client, server, or other program, sometimes acting autonomously.
The monitoring agent reports system errors back to the central server.
Intelligent agents negotiate with one another to schedule shared resources.
UsageOften software agent, AI agent or intelligent agent.
Note
Software borrowed the word from the world of representation. Like someone acting for a principal, a computing agent works on behalf of a client, a server or a person. Used alone, the term can mean a modest background component. In the phrase intelligent agent it implies autonomy: a process that can talk to other agents and share a collective task on behalf of one or more humans.
- 7A being that exerts power or has the capacity to act.
Philosophers ask whether a moral agent must be free to choose otherwise.
We treat adults as responsible agents accountable for their choices.
UsageOften moral agent or responsible agent, a person who can choose and answer for their actions.
Similaractor
Note
Brigham Young could say in 1862 that we have been made "agents to ourselves", meaning free to act and answerable for how we act.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Brigham Young used “agents to ourselves” in 1862, explicitly connecting agency with responsibility for one's actions. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 8In grammar, the participant in a clause that carries out the action, whether it appears as the subject or inside a "by" phrase.
In the passive sentence, the agent appears after the word "by".
Linguists mark which noun is the agent and which is the patient.
Oppositepatient
Note
A role, not a position in the sentence: "the boy" stays the agent whether he kicks the ball or the ball is kicked by him. That is the line between agent and subject. Its opposite is the patient, the participant the action is done to, and doer is its everyday near-equivalent. Voice turns on these roles: in the passive, the agent leaves the subject slot and can appear in a by-phrase.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Agent is a semantic role distinct from subject; the boy remains the agent in both versions of the kicking example. en.wikipedia.org
- Patient denotes the participant acted upon; doer is a near-equivalent of agent. en.wiktionary.org
- An active clause can have a subject that is not an agent: “John received the package” is active, although John is the recipient. Absence of an agent subject does not establish passive voice. terpconnect.umd.edu
- 9A cheat who works with crooked casino staff to win dishonestly.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of agent apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
Latin agere meant to drive, lead, conduct, manage, perform or do, and its present active participle agēns is the source of the word.